Aesop (Gr. ). the fabulist, born about the year 620 B. C, was convicted of the crime of sacrilege while ambassador of Croesus at Delphi, and thrown from a precipice, about 564. His birthplace is not certainly known, though Phrygia is generally mentioned. While young he was brought to Athens and sold as a slave, but finally received his freedom from his master, Iadmon the Samian. So high was his reputation as a writer that Crcesus, king of Lydia, invited him to reside at his court. He visited Athens during the reign of Pisistratus, where he wrote the fable of "Jupiter and the Frogs." His genuine works have perished, the excellent collection going by his name being either imitations or entirely spurious. The current stories concerning him are taken from a life written by Maximus Planudes, a monk of the 14th century, and prefixed to a volume of fables ascribed to his pen. In this work he is described as hideously ugly and misshapen, which statement is doubtless entirely false, as no personal defects of the kind are mentioned by any classical author.

It is rendered still more improbable by the circumstance that his statue was executed for the city of Athens by the famous sculptor Lysippus.